Workshop Details and Learning Objectives

Day 1 — July 16, 2026:
Navigating the Nervous System: Core Concepts and Clinical Applications 

Every therapeutic encounter is a meeting of nervous systems. Beneath the words, the autonomic nervous system — ours and our clients' — is quietly at work, always listening, shaping the stories we tell ourselves, and influencing our capacity for safety, connection, and change. Understanding this autonomic experience is at the heart of what Polyvagal Theory offers clinicians.

The day begins with a clear grounding in the three organizing principles of Polyvagal Theory — hierarchy, neuroception, and co-regulation — what they mean, why they matter, and how they show up in the clinical relationship. From there, we move into mapping and tracking autonomic state shifts in session, recognizing the role of co-regulation in treatment outcomes, and exploring how to weave polyvagal-informed language and interventions into existing practice.

Whether you're new to Polyvagal Theory or returning to revisit the core principles, you'll leave with a deeper understanding of how the nervous system shapes the therapeutic relationship and practical tools you can bring into your work right away.

Participants Will:

• Explore the three organizing principles of Polyvagal Theory and learn to use them to guide clients in reshaping their systems

• Engage in autonomic mapping to explore the landscape of the nervous system

• Use the elements of the social engagement system to find and foster safety in connection

• Track states of regulation and dysregulation as they emerge in sessions

• Listen to the unique stories of autonomic states

• Practice Savoring, SIFTing, Anchoring, and Glimmering

• Bring the wisdom of the nervous system into your clinical work and discover a new way of accompanying your clients on their journey toward healing.

Day 2 — July 17, 2026
Nourishing the Nervous System: Discovering and Deepening Pathways to Ventral Regulation 

Ventral regulation is the essential ingredient for successful therapy. For clients, without enough ventral energy active and alive in their systems, survival responses take over, healing is blocked, and the door to change is closed. For clinicians, an anchor in ventral makes it possible to stay present and attuned and guide the therapeutic process even in challenging clinical moments. Guided by the "both/and" wisdom of the nervous system, our work is not simply to reduce moments of dysregulation — it is equally to uncover, resource, and deepen the ventral energy that makes healing possible.

Ventral regulation is not simply a destination to arrive at — it is a dynamic autonomic state that can be awakened, deepened, and sustained.

In this experiential workshop, participants will learn to uncover and travel the ventral pathways that exist in every human nervous system — pathways that are always present, even when they feel out of reach. Together, we will explore how the autonomic nervous system moves toward and away from ventral connection, what pulls us out of regulation, and what makes it possible to find the way back. At the heart of it all is the essential question: How do we help the nervous system feel safe enough to change?

Wherever you are on your Polyvagal informed clinical journey, this workshop offers an experiential exploration of what becomes possible when the nervous system finds its way to regulation and feels safe enough to heal.

Participants Will:

• Evaluate their own patterns of autonomic regulation and recognize how these shape clinical presence and attunement

• Learn to map a regulated system and travel a regulated hierarchy building an embodied understanding of regulated states and the pathways between them

• Identify the conditions that invite or inhibit ventral connection across a variety of therapeutic relationships, recognizing that the path to regulation is never one-size-fits-all

• Identify autonomic expectations and learn to craft disconfirming autonomic experiences — moments that gently interrupt the nervous system's familiar survival stories and reshape its expectations toward safety

• Create layered continuums:

  • Create a layered ventral continuum: first mapping the incremental steps of movement toward deeper ventral immersion, then identifying specific practices that nourish and deepen regulation at each point along the way

  • Create a layered dorsal continuum: first mapping the incremental steps of movement toward deeper dorsal shutdown, then identifying specific practices that gently interrupt that descent and support the nervous system in finding its way back toward ventral connection

  • Create a layered sympathetic continuum: first mapping the incremental steps of escalating sympathetic activation, then identifying specific practices that interrupt the momentum of mobilization and create openings for the nervous system to return to the safety of ventral regulation

• Develop a personal ventral resource menu and sustainable personal practices that nourishes regulated presence across the demands of clinical work and daily life

• Bring the power of ventral regulation into your clinical practice as you nourish the nervous system's natural capacity for safety, connection, and healing.